Repairing an old quilt

[Jules M.]

Another question. I have a quilt made by my grandmother and mother that is again at least 50+ years old. The hand stitched blanket stitch around the applique is all rotting and falling off, the applique pieces were hand stitched on and go through all the layers of the quilt so those stitches I can see on the back. The blanket stitch was added later, as it only goes through the top piece. I am not a hand stitcher, so I thought I could try machine stitching the blanket stitch around the applique. I have done a part of one block and wanted to show it for anyones opinion. The machine stitching is making the area stiffer due to the extra thread, and now I am wondering if maybe I should just straight stitch around the applique and leave it at that. Here are two pictures, one of the front and one showing the blanket stitch on the back. I do want to use the quilt, not just leave it in a cupboard. What do you quilters out there think?? The rest of the quilt is holding together beautifully, it's just the green embroidery thread that has rotted. The one pic of the front, I have machine stitched around the outside edge, the inner edge is still with the old thread in place.

[Hannelore N.]

Laura, just on the strength of the pictures, without knowing how the quilt feels and handles, I would go with the machine blanket stitch. But it may be an idea to do a sample piece with different threads, so that you use a nice and thin thread. How about Masterpiece by Superior? You should have a pyjama party when that quilt is ready to be used again.

By the way, I have a couple of these old manual coffee grinders, but mine are brown, not green.